Turkey

2012

New York, March 12, 2012--The release of Turkish journalists Nedim
Şener, Ahmet Şık, Muhammet Sait Çakır, and Coşkun Musluk, who are among dozens
of journalists imprisoned in Turkey
for alleged participation in a purported antistate plot known as Ergenekon, is
a welcome development, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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New York, March 7, 2012--The Committee to Protect
Journalists is dismayed by the Turkish prime minister's repeated use of CPJ
statistics to misrepresent and undermine the serious repression faced by
journalists in Turkey.

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The state of press freedom inside the European Union has
a significant effect on press freedom outside
the EU. That was the message that CPJ Senior European Adviser Jean-Paul Marthoz
and I delivered this week when Brussels' leading think tank, the European Policy Center (EPC), hosted us for a
policy dialogue marking the launch of our annual survey, Attacks
on the Press.

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Last week, suspected supporters of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), an armed group listed as a terrorist organization by the
European Union and the United States, took their confrontation with the Turkish
state to Western Europe, attacking the French and German offices of one of
Turkey's most influential newspapers, Zaman.

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In the EU, some countries appear more immune than others to scrutiny and reproach. Anti-terror laws, political and economic concerns, and a lack of common standards all challenge the credibility of the EU's diplomacy. By Jean-Paul Marthoz

With the aid of anachronistic legislation and a rigid judiciary, Turkish officials and politicians have curbed free expression by subjecting journalists to endless court proceedings and legal costs. The EU and the U.S. are no help. By Robert Mahoney

Journalists who have fled Iran to avoid prison face a tense and lengthy process toward resettlement, an uncertain financial and professional future, and most of all, fear that the Iranian government will catch up with them. By María Salazar-Ferro and Sheryl A. Mendez>> فارسي

French satellite provider Eutelsat announced yesterday it is
suspending Kurdish satellite station Roj TV after a Danish court last week levied a hefty fine
against the satellite station for promoting terrorism. Eutelsat's decision
comes despite Roj TV's appeal before the Danish High Court, which is pending. The
case has implications for how media content is evaluated, the rights of
minority media, and how terrorism laws are balanced with human rights.

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New York, January 17, 2012--The conviction
of several accomplices in the 2007 assassination of Hrant Dink,
then-editor of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos,
fails to address the issue of who commissioned the slaying, thus perpetuating
impunity in the case, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.